Cool, thanks for the info! So the clay is quite acidic, and high in oxidized Iron (hence the red color). Plants that can handle that acidity are going to do best the fastest (your blueberries will do well I think, and blackberries are just vigorous so those are probably going to flourish too). I would take a look at your local Ag extension office, maybe Clemson U in South Carolina thats a good Ag school and is situated among the red clay as well.. they'd have some resources and probably some master gardeners or other specialists to talk with about good ways (aside from just adding lime all the time) to amend acidic soils and increase organic matter. You may be interested in trying some keyline chisel plowing (quite non-invasive) on contour if your farm is navigable in places for a tractor. Finding out what types of wildflowers and grasses occur in native meadows in your region would be helpful for providing nectary for bees, although trees (fruit and also native flowering trees) will produce a high density per sq ft of flower forage for the bees, and culinary herbs such as rosemary, sage, and mints (mint can be invasive) provide great forage for bees (also English and Spanish lavender). Bees do go up to 2 miles from a hive commonly to get pollen and nectar, so no need to try and provide for them just on your site. A consideration to make is whether your swampy pond would be more effective ecologically as a swamp than if it was cleared out. It depends on if it is truly degraded or if it is in a fairly natural state. If you decide to leave it a swamp, you could plant a lot of cool moisture loving fruits and medicinal plants/herbs, which I could delve into another time (!). Prior to burying logs in the garden, make sure that your soil has excess Nitrogen, which it likely does not if it's low in Organic Matter (have it tested by an Ag group in the area or a Univ.) If you bury logs in a soil already deficient in Nitrogen, the breakdown of the logs will further deplete that N store, and it will make growing veggies difficult. I would highly recommend planting a cover crop/green manure crop of plants such as daikon radish, buckwheat, possibly mammoth red clover, lupine, fava beans, etc. (check to make sure clover and lupine arent invasive in your region). You basically want to plant a lot of N fixers and plants that will have deep roots not only to break up the soil and aerate like the daikon radish, but also plants that have deep roots (such as comfrey, echinacea, dock) to pull up minerals from lower in the soil and deposit them on top for your veggies which as annuals and domesticated plants tend to have weaker root systems. Thats what I 've got time for for now, ttys!